---
title: "Email log"
description: "Browse, filter, and inspect every message your workspace sent from the Emails page: statuses, the per-recipient event timeline, and the rendered preview."
canonical: "https://bird.com/docs/guides/email/email-log"
---

# Email log

The **email log** records every message your workspace sends. Open **Email** > **Emails** to see the newest messages first. Use it to confirm that a message was accepted, follow each recipient's delivery status, and inspect stored content when content storage is enabled.

The email log complements the aggregate [Metrics](/docs/guides/email/tracking-and-metrics) page. Metrics shows rates across all sends, while the log shows one message. For a dashboard overview, see the [dashboard tour](/docs/knowledge-base/getting-started/dashboard-tour).

The page's **Receiving** tab is the same log for mail we receive. That side is covered in [Receiving email](/docs/guides/email/receiving-email).

![The Emails page in the dashboard: a table of sent messages with status, sender, recipient, subject, category, and sent time, plus a recipient search and status, category, and date filters](/images/docs/dashboard-email-emails.png)

## The message list

Each row is one message. The columns are:

| Column       | What it shows                                                                                        |
| :----------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Status**   | The message's current delivery status (see [Statuses](#statuses))                                    |
| **From**     | The sender: display name and address, or the address alone                                           |
| **To**       | The primary recipient; sends with more than one recipient show a count you can hover to expand       |
| **Subject**  | The message subject; select the row to open the message                                              |
| **Category** | The message [category](/docs/guides/email/categories): `TXN` for transactional, `MKTG` for marketing |
| **Sent**     | When the send was accepted, as a relative time (hover for the exact timestamp)                       |

Review `Bounced`, `Complained`, `Rejected`, and `Partial failure` outcomes. `Deferred` indicates an automatic retry. The list is paginated; use **Prev** and **Next** to move between pages.

## Searching and filtering

A message log fills up fast, so the page leads with one search box and three filters. They combine: a status filter plus a date range narrows to messages matching both.

**Search by recipient.** The search box matches an **exact recipient email address**. Enter the full address you sent to, such as `jane@example.com`. The results include every message addressed to it through `to`, `cc`, or `bcc`. Exact matching excludes partial addresses and domains.

**Status.** Filter to a single delivery status. The options are the statuses listed in [Statuses](#statuses).

**Category.** Filter to `Transactional` or `Marketing` messages.

**Date.** Filter by when the message was sent: pick a preset (**Last 3 days**, **Last 7 days**, **Last 30 days**) or choose a custom range from the calendar.

When a filter combination matches nothing, the page shows a **No emails match your filters** state with a **Clear filters** action to reset back to the full list.

## Statuses

A message's status is the roll-up of where its recipients are in the [delivery lifecycle](/docs/guides/email/events). For a single-recipient message, the status mirrors that recipient's status directly. For a multi-recipient send, the status reflects the message as a whole: **Partial failure** means some recipients succeeded and some did not.

| Status              | Meaning                                                                                                                                         |
| :------------------ | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Scheduled**       | The send has a future send time and has not started yet. See [scheduled sending](/docs/guides/email/scheduled-sending).                         |
| **Accepted**        | The send has been accepted, and delivery is being prepared.                                                                                     |
| **Processed**       | The message is built and queued for delivery.                                                                                                   |
| **Delivered**       | The recipient's mail server accepted the message.                                                                                               |
| **Deferred**        | A temporary failure. We retry automatically, and it resolves to delivered or bounced.                                                           |
| **Bounced**         | A permanent failure. The recipient's mail server refused the message.                                                                           |
| **Complained**      | The recipient reported the message as spam.                                                                                                     |
| **Rejected**        | The send was rejected before delivery was attempted. This is most often because the recipient is [suppressed](/docs/guides/email/suppressions). |
| **Partial failure** | A send to more than one recipient, where the outcome is different for different recipients.                                                     |
| **Canceled**        | A scheduled send canceled before it went out.                                                                                                   |

## Inspecting a message

Select a row to open the message in a side panel. The panel has **Events**, **Details**, **HTML**, and **Text** tabs. Use the arrows to move between messages without closing it. A scheduled message shows its send time and a cancel action. [Scheduled sending](/docs/guides/email/scheduled-sending) covers that flow.

![The email detail side panel in the dashboard, showing the Events timeline with accepted, processed, and delivered entries, then a line explaining that tracking is off for this domain so no opens appear](/images/docs/dashboard-email-detail.png)

### Events

The default tab is a per-recipient timeline of everything that happened to the message, in order, each with its timestamp. This is the same event stream described in the [email events reference](/docs/guides/email/events), rendered for one message: `Accepted` → `Processed` → `Delivered`. Then come engagement events like `Opened` and `Clicked`, or failure events like `Bounced`, `Deferred`, `Complained`, and `Rejected`.

- For a send with several recipients, an **All recipients** selector lets you view the merged timeline or filter to one recipient's journey.
- Failure events show their detail inline: a bounce shows its description, and a rejection shows its reason.
- An `Opened` event auto-fetched by an inbox privacy proxy is flagged as not a real open, matching how [open tracking](/docs/guides/email/open-click-tracking#open-tracking) treats prefetches.
- When an event auto-adds the recipient to your [suppression list](/docs/guides/email/suppressions) (a hard bounce or a complaint), the timeline says so and links to the list.
- While a message is still in flight, the timeline refreshes itself every few seconds until every recipient reaches a final state.

If a delivered message has no opens or clicks, the timeline explains why: most commonly that [open and link tracking](/docs/guides/email/tracking-and-metrics) wasn't enabled for the domain or wasn't requested on the send.

### Details

The **Details** tab shows the message's metadata:

- Its **Message ID**.
- The **From**, **To**, and any **CC**, **BCC**, or **Reply-To** addresses.
- The sending **Domain**.
- The **Category**.
- Whether **Open tracking** and **Link tracking** were enabled.
- The **Sent** and **Delivered** timestamps.

Any [tags and metadata](/docs/guides/email/sending-email) you set on the send are listed here too, and attachments appear with their size, type, and a download action. Most fields can be copied with one click.

### HTML and Text

The **HTML** tab renders the stored HTML. Its **Preview** sub-tab shows the message in a sandboxed frame, and **Source** shows the raw HTML. The **Text** tab shows the stored plain-text body. Immediately after a send, these tabs can show that content is still being stored. If content storage was disabled for the message, no body is available.

## The same log over the API

Everything on this page reads from [`GET /v1/email/messages`](/docs/api/reference/list-email-messages) and its sub-resources. The list takes the same filters the page exposes, and more:

- `status`.
- `category`.
- `tag`.
- An exact `to` or `from` address (bare address, matched case-insensitively).
- A `created_after`/`created_before` window.

Per-message detail lives on the recipients, events, and content sub-resources. The [events reference](/docs/guides/email/events) covers reading a timeline programmatically.

## Next steps

- [Email metrics](/docs/guides/email/tracking-and-metrics): aggregate stats across everything you send, and how open and click tracking work
- [Email events](/docs/guides/email/events): the full per-recipient event vocabulary the timeline is built from
- [Suppressions](/docs/guides/email/suppressions): why a recipient was rejected and how to manage the suppression list
- [Sending email](/docs/guides/email/sending-email): the send payload, including tags, categories, and tracking toggles
- [API reference: messages](/docs/api/reference/list-email-messages): read messages, recipients, and events programmatically

## Related resources

- [Getting started with email](/learn/email/getting-started-with-email) (video)
- [Email](/email-api) (product)
- [Build your first integration](/learn/paths/integration) (course)
- [Send your first email](/docs/get-started/send-your-first-email) (docs)

[Get an implementation brief](/learn/workspace?topic=email)